Soundtrack Of My Summer
by FeelTheSilence
Summary: AU. He was Shane Gray. Famous rock star and worldwide sensation, he didn’t belong in the suburbs with the cozy people and apple pies. But he needed a reality check and a change of heart and that's what he got when he met a small town girl with big dreams.
1. Jerky Pop Star Persona

_**Soundtrack Of My Summer**_

**1. **

**JERKY POP STAR PERSONA**

There was no freaking way they were making him spend his entire summer there.

He was _Shane Gray_, for crying out loud! Rock star famous, worldwide sensation and hot singer all along. He even had a Grammy! More than one actually. That must count to something, right? _Right_? So what the hell was he doing at that stupid minivan been driven to Carefree, Georgia, on the day he was supposed to be at L.A., in a sound check for the first concert of his band's new summer tour?

He was so not spending the summer among his uncle Brown, his annoying little cousin Daniel, some weird country people _and_ peach trees. He didn't even _like_ peaches to begin with.

"Guys, this is ridiculous. Let's just take a 180 turn and pretend this never happened". He pleaded to Nate Connor and Jason Leigh, his band members who were sitting right in front of him. But he got solemnly ignored in favor of whatever was being displayed on the screen of Nate's laptop.

"You know, it's a pity you can't stay until fall, dude. They have this pretty awesome barbecue contest in a nearby town". Said Nate, pretending he didn't even heard what Shane had said in the first place.

"Man, a barbecue contest! Can you imagine that?" Jason, in his turn, seemed pretty excited over the idea. "I mean, barbecue's already good enough as it is, but in a contest?" He smiled. "I'm telling you, it's all kinds of awesome. Can we come back in November? Please?" He added with his trademark puppy dog eyes expression.

"No one's coming back here in November! _I'm_ not even _staying here_ until freaking September!" Shane yelled feeling fed up with his band members' acting. And to think those two traitors were supposed to be his best mates. Yeah, tricks on him.

Jason raised his eyebrows, like he always did when he got confused. "Man, what was that about? I thought you were going to spend vacations here with your uncle Brown and everything."

Nate rolled his eyes and closed the laptop.

"_He is_, Jason. He just has to come to terms with it." Said the teen in a fierce tone before turning his attention to Shane. "And _you_, stop whining already! You got this amazing vacation because the record label recognized you were feeling 'a little bit stressed' lately and needed some time off." He was being sarcastic now, which made Shane rolls his eyes. "As if you yelling at staff members all the time, missing band practice and storming out of the set in the middle of filming our lasted music video weren't clue enough." Nate added as an after thought.

Ah, there it goes, the _'let's bash about Shane Gray as if he isn't here'_ time – the vocalist thought bitterly.

"You should be grateful, Shane. With the way you've been acting it could've been a lot worst." Finished Nate.

But Shane just crossed his arms and scoffed.

"_Right_. As if I'd be so naïve as to not see right through all of this crappy label's golden boy speech of yours. You're just trying to get rid of me!" He answered, almost drowning the van in sarcasm.

"Well, duh. Can you blame us for trying?" It was Jason's attempt to crake a joke. It worked on Nate, who laughed a little bit but Shane didn't give in – he just kept that same annoyed expression on his pretty boyish Rock Star face.

Nate sighed after a whole minute of uncomfortable silence. He wasn't particularly willing to get on Shane's bad side; it was always a rather frustrating and nerve-wrecking experience to say the least.

"Look dude, I know you're upset with the label and our manager for cancelling the summer tour. We all are, believe me, but-"

"_Really?_" Shane rudely interrupted him. "Well it sure doesn't seem like it. Who were just spazzing about barbecue contests a little while ago?" He finished sending death glares to his band members.

Nate sighed again, trying to gather his patience.

"Whatever. Just let me finish, ok?" And he went on without waiting for Shane's agreement. "Jason and I were looking forward to the tour as well. Do you think we feel good about disappointing all of our fans out there? Those who wait for months just to get the opportunity to see us? Hell no!" The teen shook his head as if to enforce his point. "But I_ do_ understand why the label did this. Shane, dude, you're a mess right now, you know that, right?"

Shane smirked. "Gee Nathaniel, you sure know how to make me feel better."

The younger one rolled his eyes at being called by his full name and raised his hands in a helpless manner.

Jason sensed that maybe it was time for him to interfere – at least before his band members choked each other with their bare hands. After all, he was the oldest one so he should as well be the wisest, right? Maybe not the brightest – that title still belonged to Nate – but the wisest was good enough.

He knew that Shane had a really bad temper and Nate had a tendency to get worked up pretty easily over Shane's jerky attitude. In situations like these both always ended up saying stuff neither of them meant to. So Jason rested his elbows on his knees and stared at Shane with a non-bubbly expression that was really rare of him.

"Listen man, I think what Nate's trying to say is that we barely recognize you nowadays. I mean…" He sighed and fixed his hair with a hand, thinking about how to get his point through to his friend. He wasn't exactly the most articulated person – no wonder why Nate was always the front man speech-delivery of the group – but he needed to try anyway. "You're always angry and yelling and treating people like scum and overall being an affected pop star diva. And you're not like that, Shane. This guy the tabloids talk bad about… He's not you." Then he gave Shane his most serious gaze and felt accomplished when he saw his band members were actually paying attention to him. "What happened to that guy who just loved his music?"

Silence engulfed the three of them after Jason's unexpected speech. That was really deep coming from the guy who was obsessed with bird houses and thought Europe was a country.

Shane stared thoughtful at the van's window glass, purposely avoiding their gazes. He silently watched the scenery passing by them. They were in this almost desert country road, just on the outskirts of the little town they were heading to.

Carefree, Georgia. A place he's never been before but he felt like he already knew. It all started for him in a small town such like that in Tennessee, when he was just this outcast and naïve boy with a guitar. Of course, that was before he moved to Nashville with his parents, started playing at some Cafe's here and there and finally got himself a deal with a small label. From that moment on it all went by pretty quickly.

Shortly after recording his first demo he was discovered by Burning Up Records, a bigger label, and moved to New York to be part of this new heavily produced band called _Connect Three_. He remembered thinking that the name was the silliest thing he'd ever heard, but being excited nonetheless. He, the anonymous guy who only had his voice, his dreams and an old guitar was going to New York! After New York, came L.A. The rest was history.

And now he wasn't that small-town boy anymore. Now he was Shane Gray from Connect Three. He lived where things, important things, actually happened – and _he_ was the center of it. He couldn't – _he wouldn't_ – blend in this stupid southern life style.

Shane wasn't getting what was the point in bringing him back to the south to spend some 'quality time' with his uncle. He didn't belong in the suburbs with the heart warming people and their apple pies and honestly, he didn't want to. He had outgrown all of that.

"He's a grown up now, Jason. That's what happened to that guy." He answered, still staring out the window.

Shane heard both boys sigh, but gladly none of them said anything more. They knew Shane well enough to know that it was useless – the Connect Three vocalist never took any of what they said to heart.

They've tried talking to him, their manager tried, the label executives tried. Still, nothing changed and Shane seemed determined of showing his frustration with whatever thing that was bothering him in the most vengeful ways. If Nate and Jason were sicking tired of his band member rebellious manners, then the label was absolutely fed up and just about to call it quits and throw the three of them out.

Shane's temper tantrums were repeatedly reported at Hot Tunes TV and in every single tabloid in America. Perez Hilton was having the time of his life by retelling the story of how Shane Gray threw coffee at a sound engineer who dared talking back to the super star. The vocalist's reputation was completely wrecked and he was starting to cost to Burning Up Records more than they could afford.

If things continued to follow down that path, the three boys' once-upon-a-time-fairy-tale-story about becoming successful musicians would not have a happily ever after ending.

Shane needed a reality check and a change of heart – these were facts. They just hoped that Brown, who once was Shane's mentor, would be more successful in getting it through to his stubborn nephew than the expensive psychologist the label paid for Shane to talk to – or, more likely, yell at and make fun of.

The minivan slowed down when they entered Carefree and Shane groaned to himself at the sight of the historical buildings in the town center.

"Come on Shane, this could be fun. You can play baseball with your little cousin or something. You used to like baseball, remember?" Nate tried to cheer him up one last time.

Shane just glared at him.

"And you could do cool things like… breathing fresh air and getting a tan. Oh! You could build me a new birdhouse!" Jason clasped his hands like a little excited kid at it was his time to earn a glare from Shane.

"And if it all fails to amuse you that's fine. You being here will still be good PR." Nate shrugged and for the first time he actually treated that whole _'let's throw Shane in the suburb thing'_ for what it was – a marketing strategy for damage control and a desperate attempt to straight him out. Shane rolled his eyes thinking about how pathetic it was.

They stopped in front of a pretty little white house with a white fence, a mail box and a green lawn. It was so cozy, friendly and movie-like that Shane had an urge to throw up. Nate and Jason were already getting off the van and going to greet his uncle with enthusiastic high fives. The vocalist just rolled his eyes and grabbed his guitar case and his much too small luggage for his taste to follow them.

"Hey, Shane!" Brown greeted him with a big smile and open arms. "It's good to see you! How's my only and favorite nephew?"

But Shane passed straight through him with an unenthusiastic 'hey Uncle Brown' and promptly ignoring the hug offer. He also passed right through his chubby little cousin who ran to him screaming his name in an excited manner and entered the little suburb house, slamming the front door shut after him.

Nate and Jason just sighed and the later padded an astounded looking Brown in the shoulder.

"Just give him time. And patience. Lots of patience." Were Jason's optimistic words.

Nate just looked up to the sky and wondered if it was time for him to start praying for Shane's soul _and_ their record deal. After all, they would need every help they could get.


	2. Breaking The News

**Before we start I just wanted to thank my reviewers**** and the people who added me to their author/story alert list. Thanks a lot, it made me happy. :) **

**Oh, and check out the banner I made for this fic, you can find ****it on my profile. **

**And now, enjoy the chapter!**

_**- FeelTheSilence**_**.**

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**DISCLAIMER: **I forgot to put it on the 1st chapter... Anyway, I don't own _Camp Rock_ (Disney does) and I'm not making any profit out of this, so don't sue.

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_**Soundtrack Of M**__**y Summer**_

**2.**

**BREAKING THE NEWS**

Shane Gray was lying in his new not-so-comfy bed with headphones in his ears and some angry rock song blasting out of his iPod.

It's been three hours. Only _three_ freaking _hours_ and he was already bored out of his mind. What was his label thinking in giving him this kind of vacations? These were not vacations. A time off in some Bahamas five stars resort hotel would be considered vacations, but _this_ was pure torture in its most raw and crude form! Honestly, he could get them all arrested because of this.

Jason and Nate had left a little while ago after a catch-up session with Brown. Those two loved Brown. Oh yeah, they loved Brown so freaking much that they should just go to Canada already, marry his uncle and leave him the hell alone. Although he was alone now, being successful in avoiding his band members, his uncle and his little cousin for the past three hours. But he was still mad and sending them all to Canada seemed like a pretty appraising idea. He knew that he wouldn't be left alone and in peace for long.

And just as he predicted there was a knock in the guest room door before Brown appeared with a smiling face. Shane rolled his eyes and resumed to his task of staring at the ceiling, but he saw in the corner of his eye that his uncle had grabbed a chair and sat right beside him.

"So Shane, what's new with you pal?" Was Brown's attempt to start a conversation. Shane just turned up the volume of his iPod and pretended he wasn't listening.

"Nate and Jason told me about your situation with the label. And I've talked to your parents as well. Your mom's worried about you, you know." Again, all he got was silence. "Shane? Are you listening to me?"

Yeah, yeah, he was listening – unfortunately his iPod didn't block out all of Brown's annoying and full-of-stupid-accent voice, but Shane could at least choose not to respond. But, to the singer's dismay, Brown wasn't taking any of that for any longer and simply pulled off the head phones from his nephew's ears and grabbed that little evil device that was helping Shane to ignore him.

"Hey!" Shane yelled, sitting on the mattress. And now instead of just bored he felt positively pissed off.

"Shane, so kind of you to take notice of me! How are you doing?" Brown greeted him with a fake cheerful smile that couldn't even fool Jason.

"Give it back! It's mine!" Shane heatedly protested, but just earned himself a smirk from Brown.

"Oh, this little thing?" The man shook the iPod before Shane's eyes as if he was shaking a piece of meat in front of a starving dog's face before placing the device inside of the front pocket of his shirt. "I don't think so nephew. You see, I'm confiscating this."

"You can't confiscate my stuff! This is called stealing!"

But Brown seemed pretty unaffected even after Shane's outburst. "It's not stealing, Shane, since I have no intention of claiming it as my own or selling it to someone else. You should check your law books more often, pal."

Shane rolled his eyes. Yeah, damn that uncle Brown and the two semesters he spent at Law School before ditching College and going to England in order to pursue a music career. He got the cocky lawyer attitude at College and the stupid accent in England.

"Whatever, you still can't just confiscate my stuff as if I'm a child or something because I'm not! I'm a _freaking nineteen_ in case you have forgotten!"

"Oh yeah?" Brown closed the distance between them by nearing his face to his nephew's and staring right at Shane's rebellious eyes. "Then start to act like a _freaking nineteen_ pal, because nowadays even Danny seems more mature than you, despite of everything that happened in the last couple of years."

Oh right, there they go down the road of the drama that took place two summers before, when Brown's British wife, Daphne, passed away in a car crash. Shane scoffed, why couldn't his uncle just get over with it already? Daphne was _dead_, she wasn't coming back, unless they were in some freaking horror movie, and there was no use for Brown to act like a mad man, drop out of his career as music producer and bury himself in this God forsaken town!

"And don't you scoff at me, Shane. This is serious business." He poked his nephew's chest with a finger while speaking. "This is not between you, Nate, Jason or those clueless label executives anymore. This is between you and me and I like to think that I know you a little bit more than those Hollywood folks of yours."

"Oh, scary." Shane crossed his arms and made a sarcastic expression. "And what are planning to do with me, uncle?"

Brown smile in such a gleefully manner that Shane immediately regretted even asking. Seeing Brown smiling like that was_ never_ a good sign. At least not for Shane Gray.

"I'm glad you asked pal, because I have _huge_ plans for you in this summer. Huge plans indeed." Then he proceeded to sit beside Shane on the mattress and put an arm around his nephew's shoulder, much to the singer's disgust. "You see, I have this amazing little music school right here in amazing Carefree and I got myself a bunch of very talented, very passionate students. I even have this girl who is my own 'American Idol' on the making. And I tell you, if there is a girl who definitely has a big shot of succeeding in this industry, she goes by the name of Mitchie Torres. She's nothing like that self-absorbed bubblegum pop crap you hear in Hollywood from girls like that T.J. Tyler's daughter. Oh, no. Mitchie is a genuine _raw talent_. And now just think about it, Shane…" Brown extended his other arm in front of them as if painting some wonderful sigh. "Think about you, teaching all of these wonderful kids as our own famous summer guest instructor!"

Shane's expression was such of a sheer horror that was even hard to describe. For a second he felt speechless. Just… speechless. Of course, that was before he burst in the angriest remark Brown had seen in years.

"_What?_ I'm not teaching some _fucking stupid_ class in your _fucking lame_ school for your _fucking loser_ students!"

At that Brown arched his eyebrows and let go of Shane's shoulder.

"Yeah, you're damn right you're not. Not with that dirt mouth of yours! Shane, what kind of speech was that? Your mother taught you better than that! I know for a fact that my well-mannered little sister would _never_ have that kind of thing going on under her watch!"

Shane just rolled his eyes. If his uncle wanted to play the 'I'm-ignoring-what-you're-saying' game then fine by him. He just needed to make his point clear. "Whatever. _I'm not_ being your famous-instructor-whatever, uncle Brown. Find another dumb for the summer job."

"Well I'd love to, but you don't happen to see any other dumb super star wandering around here, now do you?" Shane glared. God, he hated sarcasm when it was being used by someone else than himself. "And besides, you don't expect to be sheltered here by free, right?" Brown continued with a cheerful expression that left Shane confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I just mean that as much as I love you pal, my wonderful southern hospitably does not come for free. I have bills to pay and a son to feed. You saw how big Danny is now, that kid sure eats a lot! And when Nate and Jase called, asking me if I was willing to take you in for the summer and _yes_, it was their idea, you can thank your band members later." He added when he noted Shane's incredulous expression. "I told them it was all good for me, but you needed to do something for your good old uncle in order to repay me for my kindness. And _of course_, I talked to your manager and the people from Burning Up Records and we have their permission. Let me say, your label folks are absolute _thrilled_ with the idea! Something about you getting closer to your fans, coming back to your roots kinda thing. We're even discussing the possibility of maybe making a call to Pop Informer Magazine and schedule some little interview about Shane Gray's new challenge as a teacher in just a few weeks or so. What do you say?"

Now Shane was positively speechless. So much that he was even gaping. He couldn't believe that! They all have plotted against him! He could've expected that kind of thing coming from Brown, Nate and Jason. Ok, maybe not Jason since he was too air-headed to come up with an evil master plan like that, but even his manager? Even the label executives? In what type of screwed up world he was living that wasn't even possible for him to trust the people for whom he earned millions of dollars every year?

Oh, yeah, that was Hollywood. He couldn't fucking trust not even his own shadow.

Brown was feeling utterly amused by his nephew's reaction. He had almost forgotten how funny it was to have Shane around.

"Good. Now that that's settled I suggest you to go wash yourself, lunch's being served in ten." Said Brown before standing up and walking to the door.

Shane reacted by narrowing his eyes.

"I'm not hungry." He answered in a clearly displeased tone.

"Alright, go ahead and make a hungry strike just like a nine-year-old." Brown paused and turned to his nephew at the door. "Let's just see how long you can keep it up." And with one last smile, he closed the door.

Shane sighed and laid down the mattress again. He pulled the pillow that was beneath his head and put it on top of his face before letting out a frustrated scream.

-----

It was past 3:00 PM when Shane finally exited his secured hiding place with a growling stomach. The house was relatively silent and he came down the stairs only to find his cousin Daniel playing video games in the living room.

"Hey." He said, tearing Danny's attention from the TV screen. The eight-year-old boy stared at him with wide eyes and Shane felt a little uncomfortable remembering how coldly he treated his cousin just a few hours ago. Clearly the kid was scared of him. He cleared his throat, trying to get rid of that sensation. "Where's uncle Brow?"

Danny shrugged.

"He's at school. He has a class to teach now."

Shane nodded.

"Ok. Ahn, did he leave any take-out food?" Shane knew for a fact that Brown couldn't cook to save his life. He briefly wondered how Danny managed to be so chubby.

The kid shook his head. "No. He said that if you wanted something to eat you should either cook what's on the fridge or go out and get something."

Shane sighed and rolled his ayes. Yeah, that was typical of Brown. But then he noticed an important detail.

"Did Brown leave you here without any food? _At all_?" He asked Danny, feeling pretty skeptic. Come one, Brown wouldn't leave his own son to starve to death and he wouldn't expect an eight-year-old to know how to cook, would he? That was too crazy. _Even for Brown_. And even if Danny _knew_ how to cook, he wasn't supposed to be left alone and unsupervised with a kitchen all to himself. That was too dangerous.

Danny just shrugged once more.

"I have money to buy food if I want to. I'm cool." And with that he turned his attention back to his paused game.

Shane sighed. Great, that boy was an independent one. What was the problem with those kids nowadays? They all had cell phones and laptops and overall wanted to act like adults. It was sheer annoying.

Without any other alternative in mind, the vocalist made a quick trip upstairs to fetch his wallet, cell phone, a hat and a pair of sunglasses. He'd have to go out in order to get himself some food, because cooking was _definitely _not an option. Anyway, it shouldn't be such a difficult task to find a grocery store or a dinner place in such a small town without getting lost along the way. He'd go out, grab food and come back in less than one hour. No big deal.

"I'm going out, Danny. Lock the door and behave." He said as he made his way to the front door. Shane heard his cousin yell an 'okay' before he exited the house.

The Connect Three vocalist put his disguise in place, not feeling particularly keen to be recognized on the streets, and watched his surroundings. That suburb sure was a creepy place. It was like he could get run over by an ice cream truck or something when he least expected. He shook those thoughts away and made his way down the street, trying to remember where to go to reach the town center. For his luck, he was paying attention when the minivan drove him to Brow's place earlier that day.

After twenty minutes or so of wandering around, he reached the town square where the Church was placed. There were some stores in the street surrounding the square and, among them, a cozy looking place with a sign that read _Connie's Dinner_ and another sign on the glass door that read 'Open'.

Shane made his way to the Dinner and cringed when he opened the door and heard the noise of brass bells announcing his arrival. Gee, they couldn't get more small-town like now could them?

The place was kinda full considering the hour and burbling with conversations, but he managed to find an empty table right next to the window and stat down without taking off his hat or sunglasses. He grabbed the menu and studied it for a while until a waitress approached him.

"Good afternoon and welcome to Connie's. What can I get you?" The girl asked with a cheerful voice.

He raised his eyes to look at the too-much-happy-souding-girl. She was a petit teen brunette with an average pretty looking face and an ear-to-ear smile that made even her brown eyes sparkle. Shane felt like rolling his eyes – which, in fact, he did. God, she couldn't really be that happy to serve people, right? He immediately disliked her faked cheerfulness.

"Do you have anything in this place that is fat free?" He asked, eyeing the menu – which, by the way, had an astounded quantity of fried food.

"Uh, water?" The girl offered with a smile.

Shane glared at her, although she couldn't notice since he was wearing his shadows.

"Are you trying to be funny?" He asked in an annoyed tone.

"That depends." She shrugged, not seeming offended with his somewhat rude question. "Is it working?"

He narrowed his eyes. That waitress got some nerve.

"No. Now stop it." And he turned back to the menu as she bitted her lip and narrowed her eyes, not looking so happy-go-luck anymore. "Just get me some ice tea and one slice of this vegetables pie and other of your chicken pie."

She nodded, scribing down his order on a little notepad. "Right away."

Shane sighed after the girl disappeared to get his food and took off his hat, but still refused to get rid of the sunglasses.

Crap, he must've been looking like some freaky stalker with that disguise – as if his leather jacket, skinny jeans and Converse weren't enough to make him stand out in this town. He had to admit that only a freak would wear a leather jacket in July, but he was already feeling uncomfortable and mismatched enough at this stupid Carefree, Georgia without having to give up his clothes as well.

He stopped his musing when a noise caught his attention. Shane turned on his chair to look at a small stage on the right corner of the Dinner. Funny, he hadn't noticed that before. There was a cheap-looking electric keyboard placed on the stage, along with a stool and a microphone. There was also a teenage girl with curly brown-light hair fixing up some electric wires. The girl stood up, sat at the stool and smiled at her audience.

"Hello everyone. I hope you guys are enjoying your meal. My name is Caitlyn Geller and I'll be entertaining you guys for a little bit. If I suck then it's okay, you guys can just tell to me to shut up and leave." She giggled, making the costumers laugh along with her little joke. She seemed to be popular among them. Shortly after that she started playing a version of Pat Benatar's _'Love Is A Battlefield'_.

She wasn't bad – Shane decided after watching her for a couple of minutes. But she wasn't that good either. She could play the keyboard fairly well and could sing on tune, but her voice wasn't much strong. She couldn't reach high notes without souding pitched and losing her tune, so she smartly avoided those notes and just sang in an average pleasantly tone. He scoffed, that was probably the best singer that small town had to offer.

Soon enough the waitress from before was back with his order.

"She's good, isn't she?" The girl asked, while placing his tea and his plate on the table.

Shane smirked. How naïve. That waitress clearly didn't even watch the television if she thought that that Caitlyn Geller was any good. "Not really. I've heard a lot better. She's plain and average, she'd _never_ make it as a real singer. If you're friends with her, you should do her a favor and tell her that."

The brunette's smile faltered after his response and she bitted her lip.

"Can I get you anything else?" She asked, trying to sound pleasantly, but failing miserably and coming out as purely upset.

Shane just shook his head and she was gone within the next second.

That Caitlyn girl played two more songs and he was done with his meal before she exited the stage. He headed to the cashier to pay his bill, eager to just get out of that place and lock himself back in the house where he could pretend he was anywhere else but here. That same petit brunette waitress was taking care of the cashier and he briefly wondered about the lack of employment in that Dinner.

"It's thirteen dollars and seventy-five cents." She said, taping something at the cashier.

He opened his wallet and grabbed a dollar bill without caring to see its value – he only had fifty's and hundred's anyway, both would do – and tossed it to the girl before turning his back to her.

He was out of Connie's Dinner and heading down the street when he heard someone calling out for him. The voice was feminine.

"Hey, you! Wait!"

Shane froze for a second and cursed under his breath. Damn, did someone recognize him? The singer started to stride down the street, hoping to be fast enough and get away. He didn't feel like giving autographs right now. Or ever.

"You, with the hat! I told you to wait! Please!"

Oh,_ great_. Truly awesome. Now people were starting to stare and point at him. Taking a deep breath he stopped and turned around. Well, he didn't expect to pass unnoticed forever. He was Shane Gray after all, his fans could smell him from a mile away. He just had to confront this crazy groupie and tell her off, nothing he hadn't done before.

He was surprised to find that same waitress from before running towards him. Well, she didn't seem to recognize him in the Dinner, so what was that about now? He stood still, feeling a little bit curious to discover what she wanted with him. When the girl finally caught up she seemed out of breath.

"You… walk… too fast…" She said, trying to catch big gulps of air.

Shane arched his eyebrows. He didn't really walk that fast, did he? He wasn't even running. Although he was good at running, he had had plenty of practice by trying to escape from fan girls and paparazzo. Maybe the problem were the girl's legs – they were too short. _She_ was too short, like 5'1 or 5'2. She was a freaking midget.

"What do you want?" He asked, feeling upset. She didn't chase him through the town just to compliment his running skills, did she?

"Uh, right." She fixed the bangs falling over her eyes and then extended a handful of dollars to Shane. "Your change, you forgot it."

Shane eyed her weirdly. The girl chased him down the street, yelling after him, just to give him his change? _Really?_ Talk about small-town weirdness.

"You can keep it." He answered, coldly, and started to turn away with every intention of leaving.

"_What?_ Excuse me, are you insane? There's eighty-six dollars and twenty-five cents in here!" She protested, incredulity written all over her face. But Shane just shrugged.

"Whatever. I don't need it, you can keep it as a tip or something. Just stop bothering me." And then, without a second glance to the gaping brunette, he turned around and left.


	3. Dinner Girl

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own _Camp Rock_ (Disney does) and I'm not making any profit out of this, so don't sue.

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_**Soundtrack **__**Of My Summer**_

**3.**

**DINNER GIRL**

Later on that same day, the girl called Mitchie Torres was sitting on the back seat of a car parked in front of a white house. She was a girl in a secret mission and was supposed to have her eyes glued on her binoculars and be staring intently at the house, looking for any sign of suspicious movements. But despite that, she was half-lying in her seat and half-paying attention to the house and feeling oh, so utterly bored.

They – as in she and her two friends – were there for almost two hours now, just waiting for the teen boy who lived in the house to come out and show his face. Honestly, she didn't understand why they were acting like a group of freaky stalkers, but, nonetheless, it seemed important to her friends, so it should be important for her as well. Gosh, the things you do for the sake of friendship, she thought.

"Can you believe how happy we looked back then? I can't believe he turned out to be such a jerk!" Said Lola Scott, the girl who was sitting in the drive seat and holding a picture of herself and her ex-boyfriend.

"Yeah, yeah Lola. Life's hard. Men suck." The other girl who spoke in a somewhat sarcastic tone was named Caitlyn Geller and, opposite to Mitchie, she seemed to be actually paying attention to their so-called mission. Caitlyn, who was sitting at the passenger seat, at least had her eyes on her the binocular.

Mitchie sighed while listening to Lola's sad rant about how she dedicated three years of her life to Barron – the ex – and he threw her away just because she wanted to wait until graduation and prom to sleep with him.

Gosh, that whole tragic love story was such an utterly teenager cliché. Mitchie just failed to understand why it was so hard for the guys to keep their pants on. It shouldn't be such a big deal, right? After all, mankind was supposed to be this superior and rational race that didn't let their primitive impulses get the best of them. For an instance, _she_ was perfectly happy with keeping her pants safely zipped where they were and had no intention whatsoever to let any guy even get _near _her zipper anytime soon.

Not that there _was_ any guy interested in getting into her pants anyway.

"Hey, he's coming out!" Caitlyn suddenly burst, making Lola stop her rant and Mitchie snap out of her musing. "Oh crap, he has a girl with him. And she's driving the car…" Caitlyn added in a hesitant tone.

"_What?_" Lola shrieked. "Give me that!" And then she snatched Caitlyn's binoculars in order to see what was happening.

True to Caitlyn's words there was a girl with Barron as they exited the house's garage. And she was, indeed, driving the silver Honda Fit that belonged to Barron. But the worst was yet to come – after the girl pulled the car out of the garage, she and Barron started a make out session.

_Urgh_, was Mitchie's thought while watching the couple sucking each others faces.

"I can't freaking believe it! He never let _me_ drive that stupid shiny car!" Lola sounded completely hurt _and_ pissed off, which was a dangerous combination. "You know what? I'm _so_ going to go out with Sander after this. Let's see how Barron will like seeing me with his rap partner!"

Mitchie sighed and she and Caitlyn exchanged discouraged looks.

"Guys, are we done here?" The brunette asked. "I'm babysitting Danny tonight and I have to be home by seven."

"Yeah." Lola nodded, putting away the binoculars and turning on the car's engine. "Yeah, we're done. _I'm_ done. Actually, I'm better than done, I'm _over_ him. For good." And as if to prove her point, the girl opened the car window and threw away her picture with Barron before pressing down the gas pedal.

In her seat, Caitlyn just rolled her eyes but didn't say anything about that. "So, Mitchie, why are you babysitting the devil's spit tonight? I thought this was going to be an all girls evening." She asked while twisting one curly hair wick around her index finger.

"Cait, don't call him that." Was Mitchie's protest. "I like Danny, he's a good kid."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about Danny! I like him as well. I was referring to our dear old Teacher Brown." She clarified.

The three girls giggled after Caitlyn's comment. Truth is they _did_ like their music teacher, despite the fact that he was making them work their butt's off at this super intensive summer classes he came up with.

"Well, he's going to Vienna tonight. Andy is playing drums at some gig, remember? Brown will be there for moral support." Mitchie explained.

"Uh, that was kinda nice coming from the devil." Caitlyn admitted.

"So, Mitchie, do you know if Brown's super famous super hot nephew arrived yet?" It was Lola's time to ask. She wrinkled her eyebrows in a very suggestive form as she stared at her friend's face through the car's mirror.

Mitchie rolled her eyes from the back seat. The fact that Brown was blood related to the pop star phenomenon, Shane Gray, and that Shane himself was coming to spend the vacation at his uncle's house in Carefree, Georgia, after the Connect Three summer tour was canceled were classified as top-secret information. So, of course, all of Brown's students already knew about it.

"I don't know. From what Brown told me, this Shane guy was supposed to arrive this week, but I guess he's not here yet." She shrugged. "I mean, if he was here then Brown wouldn't have asked me to babysit tonight. The guy could take care of his own cousin."

"Oh, Mitchie. It's so utterly amazing how you call the Connect Three vocalist 'this Shane guy'." Caitlyn said, between giggles. "And have you thought that maybe Brown wants you to babysit both his son _and_ his nephew?"

Lola nodded and backed her up. "Good point, Cait."

Mitchie sighed and shook her head. Well, what did Caitlyn and Lola want? To see her screaming like a psycho fan girl and crying her eyes out just because Shane Gray _might_ be in town and she _might_ be meeting him that night? It's not like she was crazy about Shane Gray. She wasn't even crazy about the Connect Three _per se_. Ok, they were cute, they got talent and had some nice catchy songs, but they weren't her favorite type of band. She preferred either rock or some heartfelt ballad, maybe even country when she was in the mood to be sappy. Connect Three's cookie-cutter pop songs were just… Well, not her thing.

Besides, Shane, Nate and Jason were just… _Boys_. Rich and famous boys, but still, behind the celebrity façade, they were just human beings. They should probably do wrongs and screw up just as much as Barron did with Lola – that was how real boys were. From her point of view it was simply ridiculous to treat them as if they were these flawless pop star gods. Especially after the jerk attitude Shane Gray has been sporting in the past months.

"Highly doubt it, Cait. Besides, if Shane Gray was here we'd know it by now. The streets would be already filled with his screaming pre-teens fans." She answered in a nonchalant way.

Caitlyn and Lola were forced to agree with that one.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Mitchie. He must still be in L.A., whining about having a bad hair day or something."

They all nodded at Caitlyn's comment and dropped the pop star subject without a second thought as Lola drove down the street to the Torres's House.

-----

It was 7:28 PM and the plasma TV at Brown's living room was on at Hot Tunes.

After spending the whole day locked inside the house, except for his little excursion to get food, and with _nothing _to do, Shane was feeling a little bit masochist that evening. So much that he resumed to watching that stupid and low-rated music channel.

Shane had had yet another argument with his uncle in that afternoon. All began when he discovered that Brown was going to a work-related thing in a nearby town and would leave the singer and Danny with a nanny. A freaking _teenager _nanny. The screaming and yelling on Shane's part lead down to Brown deciding that the singer's laptop was the next thing to be confiscated.

_Amazing_, was Shane's bitter thought. With the way things were going, he'd be lucky to keep his cell phone until the next week. So right now, the TV was Shane's only way of communicating with the outside world and he _needed_ to know what the hell was going on out of that miserable town. He_ needed_ to know what people were talking about him and Connect Three – even though that that discovery was likely to upset him even more. But what else was he supposed to do? His band members and manager refused his calls throughout the whole day!

He was starting to realize that these vacations were more than a way to torture him. They were his own personal prison. Like an exile or something.

"I'm hungry. And I don't want to watch this boring music show. I want to see Avatar!" Danny, who was sitting on the couch beside Shane, started whining.

The pop star rolled his eyes. The remote control was securely held captive by his hands so the boy couldn't change the channel.

"Well, _I_ don't want to watch a stupid cartoon show about a bald boy. Now shut up, I'm trying to listen." And he turned up the volume of the TV, despite feeling utterly frustrated with the lack of interesting news. Hot Tunes was covering Madonna's new tour and there were no comments about Connect Three.

Danny crossed his chubby arms and sighed. "I wish Mitchie was here. _She_ would let me watch Avatar." Said the boy, referring to his nanny.

Shane scoffed to himself. Well, too bad that that wasn't _Mitchie's_ house.

Mitchie… He started thinking about what kind of freaky girl would have such a ridiculous name like that. Well, probably a girl with mental instable parents. Mitchie was the kind of name you'd give to your _dog_, and not to your _daughter_. He almost pitied her. _Almost_. But right now he was too busy feeling sorry for himself.

He was Shane Gray, front man of the hottest band on the country, and he was reduced to be laying on his uncle's old couch, watching Hot Tunes and musing about the weird name of a girl he didn't even know. _And_, if everything else wasn't pathetic enough, it was a Saturday night. He kind of wished someone would just come out of the blue, shoot him and put an end to his misery already.

Suddenly there was a noise coming from the front door, like someone was opening the locker from outside. Shane sat straight on the couch with wide eyes. Was that really happening? Would someone just come through that door and shoot him? He heard the door opening and wondered if he should run or try to call 911 – if it wasn't a murderer, then it must be some stalker fan who found out where he was. But then he heard this feminine and soft voice calling out Danny's name and the boy jumped off the couch and dashed to the door shouting 'Mitchie!'.

Shane sighed with relief. It was just the nanny. But then he caught himself and cringed. _Urgh_, it was the nanny.

He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for what was to come – the screaming, the tears, the ogling, the _'Oh my God! I love you so much, I'm like your biggest fan ever!'_ speech. And then the girl would probably spend the rest of the night trying to flirt with him. He didn't know which part of that annoyed him the most.

"Mitchie, Shane's being an ass and won't let me watch Avatar! And there's a new episode airing today!" Danny started his whining again while the sound of footsteps indicated that they where entering the hall.

The girl giggled. "It's ok, Danny. We'll work it out."

Shane arched his eyebrows. That Mitchie kinda had a familiar voice…

And then she showed up at the living room, carrying some bags that read Connie's Dinner in one hand and holding Danny's hand with the other one. She looked up at Shane and gave him a politely, yet somewhat shy, smile.

No wonder he thought her voice sounded familiar. It was the same girl from the Dinner. The petit brunette waitress.


	4. Meet Your Local Celebrity

**So, this chapter is dedicated to Han and Stina, because they are both utterly amazing and make me so freaking happy with their ****comments! :D**

**For all my readers: enjoy the Smitchieness and, **_**please**_**, review to tell me your thoughts about the chapter. Don't worry so much about updates, it won't take long anyway. **

**- FeelTheSilence.**

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**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own _Camp Rock_ (Disney does) and I'm not making any profit out of this, so don't sue.

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_**Soundtrack Of My Summer**_

**4.**

**MEET YOUR LOCAL CELEBRITY**

Mitchie felt like she was glued to the same spot after making eye contact with Shane Gray.

Well, it sure was a surprise when Danny greeted her saying that his cousin was there. But she couldn't just freak out now, could she? The best she could do was try to not look _that_ surprised by seeing a pop star right in the middle of Brown's messy living room, sitting on the old leather couch and watching… Was that Hot Tunes? She averted her eyes from the TV screen and cleared her throat.

"Ahn, hi. I'm Mitchie. Mitchie Torres, nice to meet you." She made a pause, expecting him to say anything. He didn't. So instead she just started talking again, since she couldn't stand uncomfortable silences. "Well, I wasn't really expecting to see you here... Hum, nice thing I brought a lot of food, I guess." The girl opted to shut her mouth then, she was starting to babble.

Shane unconsciously checked her out. It was definitely the same girl from that afternoon, but she was kind of poorly dressed now. She was wearing jeans shorts, a baggy T-shirt, some really old pair of blue Converses and her hair was wet, like she had just washed it and didn't bother to dry it. Plus, she didn't have any make up on. Guess she _really_ wasn't expecting to see him then. At least she wasn't screaming, maybe she was just too surprised.

"Yeah, nice to meet you." He answered in a monotone voice. "I'd tell you my name, but I guess you already know who I am."

Mitchie frowned. What a cocky guy. But she guessed he kind of had a reason to be cocky, since he _was_ right and she _did_ know who he was. Still, he was making her feel a little uncomfortable and self-conscious with his probing gaze and she didn't like that.

For her luck, Danny distracted her by pulling on her hand.

"Mitchie, I'm hungry." The boy said with a slight pout. Shane thought the kid was being strangely whining considering how he acted so independent in that same afternoon. Maybe it was because the girl was around now and he wanted to look cute. What a brat.

Mitchie smiled a little bit. "Well, good thing I have food, right?" Then she turned to Shane. "I brought some burgers from my mom's Dinner. Are you hungry too?"

Shane scoffed. So aside from being a waitress and a baby sitter, she was also the daughter of the Dinner's owner? That girl was a small-town walking cliché. He didn't tear his eyes off of the TV screen to answer her. "I don't eat fat food, remember?"

Mitchie felt lost for a second before realization dawned upon her face. Of course… The voice, the arrogance, the stupid disguise, the way he talked about music as if he knew a lot about the subject. Shane Gray was the guy who showed up at the Dinner that afternoon, treated her badly and then rudely told her to 'stop bothering him' when she tried to give him his change. She shook her head, what a small world.

"Sorry, but fat food is all that I've got." She answered, sounding not sorry at all.

Shane shrugged and then turned around just to give her a bored look. "Yeah, no kidding. No wonder you don't look much skinny." And then he focused his attention back on the TV.

Mitchie was positively bewildered. Did he just call her _fat_? _Really_? Shane Gray had the nerve to call a _girl _fat?

"Excuse me?" She asked, incredulous.

Shane sighed. Why couldn't that girl just shut up already?

"What?" He sounded even more annoyed than Mitchie when he turned to face her again.

The brunette now had both of her hands on her hips and her eyes were narrowed. "You're being a real jerk, did you know that?"

"Oh yeah?" Shane snapped and petulantly rose up from his seat. "And _who are_ _you_ to tell me that?"

"I'm a _person_!" She snapped back. She couldn't believe the level of stupidity coming from that guy's mouth. "And there's a way of talking to a person and that's _not it_! You're giving your cousin a terrible example!"

Shane felt a little taken aback after Mitchie's outburst. Was that girl telling him off? _Him_, Shane Gray? That… That wasn't right. Stuff like that didn't happen to him. Girls didn't talk back at him like that, they were supposed to just… Ask him to marry them and stuff like that.

Shit, he was supposed to answer her. The girl was staring defiantly at him as if expecting him to say something and he opened his mouth… But nothing came out. Now Shane was immensely pissed off at himself. What was wrong with him? He was _Shane _freaking _Gray_! He wasn't the type of guy that was left speechless by some girl. Especially not a small-town girl like that Mitchie Torres. Still, why couldn't he think of anything to say to her?

Ok, he needed to say something. Anything. Because that Mitchie girl was starting to look at him as if he was a mental case.

"Fine. I… I'll eat your burger if that makes you happy." He cringed inside, hating how insecure he sounded.

Still, Mitchie didn't seem even remotely pleased with his answer.

"I don't want you to eat my burger. I want you to try to act a little bit nicer. Gosh! It's not like you'd drop dead if just tried to be polite to someone, did you know that?" And then Mitchie bitted her tongue. Ok, where did that come from? She wasn't normally like that. She wasn't so…_ fierce_. She was the quiet type of girl, the blending-in-the-background girl. But that Shane Gray was getting on her nerves and when things got on her nerves she… She just snapped. She couldn't fathom why he was being so rude ever since he met her – first at the Dinner, and now here. What did she ever do to him?

Gosh, she'd better stop now, was Mitchie's thought. She was starting to go too far. After all that was Brown's house. It would be too impolite and ungrateful of her to offend Brown's nephew at his own house.

Shane sighed, thinking how that girl was remembering him of his mother. No surprise that Brown wanted that Mitchie to babysit Danny. If she was giving Shane Gray, famous Connect Three member who was probably older than her, a piece of her mind, then the singer didn't even want to imagine how ugly it would be if eight-year-old Danny dared to misbehave around her.

He realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to make smart jerk remarks with her. The girl would probably just keep on talking back and burning him all night long. Shane didn't know if he could take another moral-filled answer from her.

"Okay. Restart. I'm Shane Gray, nice to meet you." He offered his hand for her to shake, as if they have just met.

Mitchie gazed at his extended hand with wide eyes. She didn't saw that one coming. Did he actually pay attention to what she said? _Seriously_? Well, she wasn't used to that, to have people listening to her, even less doing what she asked them to do.

It was Shane's turn to feel self-conscious under her pondering gaze. The singer suspected that she was balancing her options – take his pathetic peace offer or just finish destroying his now fragile super star ego? Little did he know, Mitchie was just too busy feeling bewildered at the moment – and, this time, in a good kind of way.

She wasn't a vengeful type of person so she sheepishly took his hand and shook it. Shane noticed with a bit of surprise that she had a weak handshake. He was kind of expecting her to crush his fingers or something after her personality display from earlier. But then again, she _was_ a petit girl. A fragile looking girl… With a strong temper.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Mitchie Torres." And then she smiled. It was nothing like the ear-to-ear smile that she had given him earlier, at the Dinner, before she found out who he was, but at least was a start. She didn't seem mad anymore, which was kind of a relief to Shane.

"And I'm Daniel Cesario and I'm hungry! Can we eat now that we are all friends?" Danny called their attention, tired of being neglected.

Mitchie giggled and let go of Shane's hand. The singer couldn't help the sudden feeling of loss when his hand was left alone. Mitchie's hand was small, soft and kind of warm and nice to hold… But then he silently cursed at himself for having those weird thoughts.

"Sorry, I almost forgot. Let's go eat." She apologized to the kid with a sheepishly smile before turning around and heading to the kitchen with Danny following right beside her. But suddenly, after three steps or so, she stopped and turned around, looking at Shane with soft, inquisitive eyes. "Aren't you coming?" Mitchie asked a little confused.

Shane blinked. Only then he realized that he was still standing at the same spot near the couch. He felt like kicking himself for acting so stupidly and so… un-Shane like.

"Yeah." He nodded. Once. Twice. "Yeah, I'm coming." But despite his answer it took his legs another whole second to actually move and follow them to the kitchen.

Shane's reaction made Mitchie smile and Danny smirk, as if he was seeing something both teens were pathetically missing. The kid had a feeling that his dad would like to know all about that.

-----

It ended up that Danny succeeded to sweet-talk his way into watching _Avatar: The Last Airbender_. Shane still wasn't much happy with the idea of being forced to watch a stupid cartoon show, but stuck around the living room nevertheless. Partly because Mitchie made a somewhat disappointed face when he tried to excuse himself back to his bedroom after a quiet dinner. Or at least he _thought _that she seemed disappointed.

Well, he _hoped_ that she felt disappointed. Not that it mattered to him anyway, but it would be good to know that she could at least _act_ like a _normal_ girl – like those who blushed and had crushes on him. Shane knew how to deal with those kinds of girls, but he didn't know what to do with other, different girls. Girls who tell him off, like that Mitchie Torres.

The experience of watching _Avatar_ led to Danny commenting that Shane was a lot like Prince Zuko and, in a first moment, the singer thought it was cool, being compared to a prince and all. But it lasted only until he found that that Zuko guy was a whining-emo-banished-prince with a huge and ugly scar on his face. And, on top of that, the so-called prince was in desperately need of a new haircut. Shane didn't understand what the hell was the point that Danny was trying to prove – that Zuko character was _nothing_ like him! That wasn't him _at all_. But, for some inexplicable reason, Mitchie found the comparison extremely amusing. Well, he had already established the fact that Mitchie Torres wasn't exactly 'normal'.

The trio just spent the rest of the evening watching Nickelodeon cartoons. Shane discovered that he and Mitchie had at least one thing in common: they both hated _Sponge Bob_. That was kind of a relief for Shane, since Nate and Jason loved that creepy yellow thing and insisted on watching it while Connect Three was on tour. At least there was one positive point about that whole exile experience – he wouldn't have to deal with _Sponge Bob_ for another two months or so.

It was well past 10:00 PM when Danny finally started yawning and Mitchie decided it was bed time for him. She disappeared upstairs with the boy and left Shane in the living room with snacks and the TV all for himself. He took the opportunity to switch the channel back to Hot Tunes and caught the night musical news. And that was when he finally saw a glimpse of himself on the TV screen, alongside with the disturbing headline: _'Is Gray Gone?'_. He turned up the volume in order to better hear what the female reporter was saying about him.

"The word going up and down Hollywood is that Burning Up Records, the label who is behind teen sensation artists such as Connect Three, Tess Tyler and Margaret Dupree, is _fed up_ with the eccentrics of their most prominent star, the vocalist Shane Gray. After Shane stormed off the set in the middle of filming the band's lasted music video, a feat that cost the label thousands of dollars, the Connect Three summer tour was officially _canceled_ and Shane Gray is _nowhere _to be seen ever since. According to the official pronouncement from the band's management, the Connect Three members are currently taking some 'time off' with their families. But an insider from Burning Up Records told us _today_ that Shane Gray was sent _somewhere else_ than his family house in South Hamptons, in order to clean up his act. We are wondering if 'time off' and 'clean up' are synonyms for 'rehab'..." The reporter smirked to the camera and Shane found it all so annoying that he grabbed the remote and turned off the stupid TV even before the new was finished.

Shane felt anger boiling up inside of him. Half of the stuff that reporter was saying was completely made up to begin with. Rehab? He didn't need to go to a freaking rehab! He wasn't even twenty-one yet, he didn't _drink_! And he never got _close_ to drugs. Did people think that those were the reasons behind his behavior? Well, if that was what they were saying about him in L.A. then he sure was happier staying in ignorance.

Mitchie found Shane with a distressed expression painted on his face when she came down the stairs after putting Danny to sleep. The singer was still sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the TV screen – which was off. He seemed so lost in thoughts that didn't even notice the girl approaching him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Mitchie asked.

Shane blinked and tore his eyes off the TV to gaze at the girl. She had a puzzled expression that went well with her concerned tone. He smiled a half and bitter smile.

"No, I'm not okay". Shane answered, truthfully, before sighing and resting his head on the top of the couch's cushion.

The silence fell upon the two of them for a moment in which none knew exactly what to say. It was pretty obvious to Mitchie that something happened during the time she was upstairs and, whatever it was, it had made Shane upset. Seeing him down like that made her feel kind of sorry for him. She couldn't help wanting to ask Shane what was wrong and maybe try to cheer him up – that was Mitchie's nature, since she was a little kid she hated seeing other people sad or upset – but she feared that Shane would snap at her, saying it wasn't her business – which, really, it wasn't – and then go back to acting like a jerk. She didn't want that, she was rather pleased with how peaceful the last hours had been after Shane decided to put a stop to his overly egoistical attitude.

Mitchie bitted her lip and then took a deep breath. She _had_ to ask, that awful silence was starting to be too oppressive for her taste. Plus, Shane's lost gaze was worrying her. She couldn't just leave and let him alone, not when he was upset like that. Who knew what he could do?

"Shane… Is there-" she had to take another breath to gather the courage to continue "… is there anything I can do for you?"

He sighed again and closed his eyes by placing his left hand over them. "No, Mitchie. Not unless you want to murder some Hot Tunes reporters for me." Then he let out a bitter chuckle that made Mitchie felt like her lungs were being squeezed a little. It hurt the tiniest bit inside her chest.

"Were they saying bad things about you again?" She hesitantly asked.

Shane huffed. "Yeah, try more like _always_. Except that this time they were a little bit more creative." He paused his sarcastic remark for a second. "Maybe I should send them flowers for their originality?" Shane added as a sarcastic afterthought.

Mitchie sighed and went to the couch to sit beside him.

"Well, if it is just a gossip, then don't worry. It will blow off eventually, like it always does." She tried to sound reassuring and prayed for it to work.

Shane chuckled. He seemed a little less bitter now. "Yeah, I know." He clarified and then took his hand off his eyes but remained staring at the ceiling. "It just annoys me how these tabloids think that they know everything about me. They just assume that I'm a certain type of person, print it out and spread the new as if it is some sort of universal truth."

Mitchie bitted her lip, Shane seemed really, really upset. She could just wonder what kind of stuff they were saying to get to him like that. It must've been pretty harsh.

Well she had to admit that, at first, Shane actually lived up for the jerk image the press gave him. But know, taking a second look… Well, he wasn't _that much_ of a jerk. Actually, in that very moment, Shane Gray wasn't acting like a jerk _at all_. He was acting more like… A human. Like the normal boy she always thought him to be and who had every right to feel upset when people were spreading lies about him on the TV.

"I guess that when you're on the spotlight and there are so many people looking up at you, then it's only natural that the public wants to know more and more about you and when those who are responsible for gathering that type of information doesn't have enough material to work with then… Then they just come up with something to fill the blank and sell their magazines and make people watch their TV shows. But I'm not saying that they are right!" She quickly added when Shane gave her a dirt look. "I'm _not_ defending the press or anything like that, they are _wrong_ when they say stuff that isn't true about you. I'm just trying to say that, well… You're _Shane Gray_." She chuckled, as if only his name could summarize everything she was explaining. And, in fact, it could. Or at least the comment was enough to make Shane smile a little. "It just sort of comes with the package. All the gossip, the lies, the paparazzi, the way you have almost no privacy. It's just part of the life that you chose and there's no use to fight it or to get upset over it." She shrugged. "You have to just, you know… Ignore it. Because you're bigger and better than that. And as long as you and the people you care about know that the bad stuff they say about you isn't true, then it's fine."

Shane eyed her with an appreciating gaze and a half smile adorning his lips. That was a nice reassuring speech that she came up with. He briefly wondered if she had much experience in consoling people or was just really sympathetic. Maybe both. But how strange was that a girl like Mitchie Torres, who was just a high school student, waitress and babysit from a small town, had had more success in soothing him than a very experienced, very expensive, psychologist from L.A.? His label executives would be mortified if they discovered that, since they were the ones who paid for those useless therapy sessions. But maybe that was exactly the reason why Mitchie could calm him down when a lot of people before her couldn't.

It was because she was this plain girl who wasn't related to him at all and who would neither gain nor loose anything whether Shane chose to pay attention or to ignore what she was saying. She hasn't been infected by the show business virus yet. She was still pure… And that was refreshing.

Unexpectedly, Shane found himself smiling a bit more. "You know, you say some pretty smart stuff for a…" He raised an eyebrow. "What are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?"

She nodded at the last one. "I'm sixteen."

He nodded back at her. "Yeah, I figured. You're the same age as Nate." Shane frowned at the memory of his younger band member. "He says some pretty smart stuff too."

Mitchie giggled, feeling her chest a lot lighter. Shane seemed fine, which was a good thing.

"Yeah, Caitlyn would be pleased to know that." She answered, giving little thinking to what she was saying.

"Caitlyn?" Shane narrowed his eyes, trying to remember where he knew that name from. Suddenly the image of a teen girl with curly hair playing keyboard came to his mind. "Isn't that the girl who was singing at the Dinner? Why would she like to know that about Nate?" He gazed at Mitchie with a puzzled expression and saw her bit her lip, as if she had said something she shouldn't. Then he realized what she meant about Nate. "Oh, don't tell me she has a crush on Nate Connor?"

Mitchie seemed mortified with his bluntness and that only made Shane laugh.

"Well, no. It's not like a _real _crush." Mitchie tried to fix it before it went too far. Caitlyn would kill her if she found out that Mitchie had babbled about her friend's tween crush on Nate of Connect Three to _Shane Gray_ of all people. "She just… She just thinks that Nate is cute, that's all."

Shane shook his head. That was so amusing.

"Well, and how about you?" He fixed his hazel eyes on her brown ones. "Do you think Nate is cute too? Or Jason?"

Mitchie gulped under his probing gaze and felt her face heat. Gosh, was that really happening? Was Shane Gray asking her if she thought that his band members were cute? The only thing worst than that would be if Shane asked her what she thought of _him_.

Oh, God, why on earth did he want to know that anyway? It's not like de didn't know that he and his band members were all good-looking. Well, Shane was certainly aware of his own hotness since he acted to cocky about it.

But Mitchie was saved from answering that incredibly embarrassing question when a sound of a car horn came from the outside.

"Oh, that must be my dad." It was her answer to Shane's unspoken question about the origin of the sound. "I called him from upstairs and asked him to come and pick me up since Danny's already sleeping and everything." She bitted her lip then. Shane noticed she seemed to do that when she was nervous or unsure about something _or_ when she was mad at him. "I can go, right?"

He felt a little confused as to why she was asking for his permission, but he gave it anyway. "Yeah, absolutely. You can go."

"Oh, ok." She stood up from the couch and he followed her gesture. They stared at each other.

"So, uh, it was nice to meet you." Mitchie offered as a beginning of a goodbye.

Shane nodded. "Yeah, it was nice meeting you too."

They locked gazes again and after some moments of just staring at each others eyes Shane started to wonder if it was just his mind paying tricks on him or if Mitchie Torres was purposely postponing her leaving.

But then the horn sounded again and the moment was broken. Mitchie jumped on the same place, caught up on what she was supposed to do and headed for the exit.

"Yeah, ok. I guess I'll see you around." She said at least, while holding the front door open.

Shane just nodded and then she left. The singer caught a glimpse of her small figure disappearing into the night to climb on her dad's car before she was gone.

He locked the front door and took a look at the now empty living room. Shane sighed. He was alone now. Just like he wanted at the beginning of the day… So, why was he feeling a hell lot far from being pleased?


	5. Morning Conversations

**IMPORTANT NOTE:**** Ok guys, my summer vacations (hey, it's summer here where I live) are officially **_**over **_**and I'm going back to my job **_**and**_** college this week, so from now on updates will take a little longer.**

**Enjoy Shane's second day at his uncle's house**** and review!**

**- **_**FeelTheSilence**_**.**

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**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own _Camp Rock_ (Disney does) and I'm not making any profit out of this, so don't sue.

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_**Soundtrack Of My Summer**_

**5.**

**MORNING CONVERSATIONS**

Shane woke up that Sunday morning with the noise of his cell phone buzzing right beside his pillow. He didn't open his eyes as his hand reached for the phone and flipped it open to answer the call, without bothering to look at the caller ID.

"What?" His sleepy voice came out muffed against the pillow. Surprisingly, he didn't sound angry for being awaken, but that was just because he was too sleepy to feel anything else.

"Hey, Shane. Sorry, did I wake you?"

His sleepiness faded way when he recognized one of his band member's voice on the other side of the line.

"Nate! What the hell?" And Shane's cranky morning humor made its appearance. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine I guess." Nate answered. "How are you doing?"

"Where are you?" Shane ignored the younger's question and made one himself.

Nate sighed, but answered it anyway. "At some hotel in Atlanta. Jason and I had to stay the night to wait for our flights." There was a pause during which Nate seemed to be chatting with someone else. "Hey, wait up, Jase wants to talk to you."

There were more muffed sounds of conversations. Shane sat on the bed, running a hand through his hair. The singer crinkled his nose at the feeling of the curly hair between his fingers. He had washed it the night before, after Mitchie was gone, but when he opened his luggage, searching for the hair straightener, he found out that it was missing. It made him go insane. He could swear that he had packet the damn thing!

"Hey Shane! We're missing you! Are you missing us too?" Jason's cheerful voice suddenly popped up from the line, snapping Shane out of his thoughts.

He sighed. "Right now, I'm just missing my hair straightener, Jase. Did you see me taking it out of my bag before we left L.A.? I'm pretty sure that I packed it alongside with the blow drier and-" Jason's chuckles cut his speech.

"Man, he found out about his hair thingy." Shane heard Jason say to someone else on the other side of the line. Then he could distinctly hear Nate chuckling as well and asking Jason for the phone.

Shane gaped. No, they couldn't have done that, could they?

"Hey, Shane?" It was Nate's voice. He sounded pretty amused. "Yeah, we snuck your hair straightener out of your bag when you were not seeing." He admitted.

"You _what_?" Shane yelled, in a mixture of annoyance and incredulity. "Oh, wonderful. How the hell am I supposed to get out of the house now?"

Shane _hated_ his stupid curly hair. He had hated it ever since he was a kid and thanked God for whoever that had invented hair straighteners. The singer couldn't believe that Nate and Jason had done such a thing to him. But then again, Nate and Jason were also the ones behind the scheme that dragged him out of LA and straight to Georgia.

"Well, we think it's time for you to embrace the natural look. I did it; Jason decided to do it too. It could be a cool thing to change the band's image like that. We should all admit that we are a group of three curly-haired musicians instead of one who is curly-haired and proud of it and two who _pretend_ they have straight hair. " Nate explained in a much business-like attitude.

Shane thought his band members had officially gone nuts.

"Come again?" He asked, perplexed.

Nate just chuckled. There was noise on the background again and Shane noticed that the two guitarists were chatting between them once more. He rolled his eyes, that whole phone call was starting to get on his nerves.

"Oh, Jason wants to talk to you again. Just wait, I'll put you on speakerphone."

Oh, good, finally someone had a good idea, the singer thought.

"Hey Shane, it's Jason again." The older boy said, as if he thought that Shane was incapable of recognizing his voice. "Have you started building my birdhouse yet?" He eagerly asked.

Shane frowned. Birdhouse? "What birdhouse?" He voiced his confusion.

The guitarist sighed dramatically. "The one I asked you to build when we were in the van! I can't believe you forgot it!" And then he whined, much like a little kid.

Shane rolled his eyes again. "Jason, why the hell do you need another birdhouse?"

"Because I want to see more birds, duh." He answered as if he was explaining something obvious for a five-year-old kid. "Promise me you won't forget my birdhouse again!"

"Well, no. You helped Nate to get rid of my hair straightener, so no birdhouse for you." Shane heard Jason making fake crying noises after his response. He had to suppress his laugh, Jase was being hilarious.

It was strange for Shane to notice that he wasn't mad at his band members anymore. On the day before he thought that he would be nothing but majorly pissed off in the next time he spoke to Jason and Nate, especially after the two spent the whole Saturday ignoring his calls, but he didn't felt like that now. He was annoyed at their little prank with the hair straightener, but that was it. He wasn't feeling like murdering the duo, at least not at that precise moment.

"Jason, stop complaining about that birdhouse. I'll buy you one when I get to Pennsylvania." Nate put and end to Jason's little drama with that promise. "And Shane, you didn't answer my first question yet. How are you, dude?"

The vocalist briefly wondered why Nate was so concerned with his well being. He shrugged. "I'm fine. Why?"

There was a pause and he could sense that his band members were hesitating. Nate was the one to break the silence. "Well, I don't now if you're aware but there was this report about you on Hot Tunes yesterday…"

Shane rolled his eyes, he was pretty aware of that. "Yeah, I know. I saw it."

"And?" Jason pressed him, seeming curious.

"And what?" He shrugged once more. "What's done is done. I can't do anything about what they're saying so just let them say it."

"Wow." Nate sounded surprised. "I didn't see that one coming. Hey, who are you and what have you done with Shane Gray?"

"Ha, ha." Shane faked a sarcastic laugh. "Not funny guys."

"You have to admit it was kinda funny." Said Jason.

"No, it wasn't." The singer stubbornly disagreed. "Listen, I've gotta go. Need to go get some breakfast before Danny eats everything in sight." That was a pretty lame excuse since he didn't even know if Danny was up yet, but Shane was feeling that Nate and Jason were just a small step from starting to try to make fun of him and he didn't want that.

"Yeah, we've gotta go too. We still need to check out before heading to the airport." Nate answered, being the practical guy he was. "It was nice talking to you, Shane." He added after a moment of silence.

That caught vocalist on surprise. "Uh, yeah. Does it mean you guys will stop ignoring my calls or something?"

Nate and Jason laughed a bit.

"Yeah, maybe." The younger conceded.

"We'll miss you Shane! I promise I'll make Ella help me texting you when I get home!" That was Jason, obviously. Shane just failed to comprehend how Jason's childhood girlfriend could be of any help in teaching the guitarist to use his cell phone features, since Ella was just as much of an air-head as Jason.

"Tell Brown and Danny we said 'hi'. And take care, man." Said Nate.

Shane smiled a bit and then hung up the phone without saying anything.

That had been different, just chatting with his band members like that. He didn't talk much to Nate and Jason nowadays – or to anyone. He had kind of lost his faith in his band members a while ago, when he noticed that the two of them cared more about keeping the successful pop band image than staying true to themselves and their music, since in the last couple of years the only songs the label would let them record was the type of cookie-cutter pop stuff that the executives thought would sell well among teens. Shane's feelings of frustration and betrayal towards the label and their manager weren't welcome among the other two members of Connect Three. Ironically, considering the band's name, the three of them couldn't be more _disconnected_.

He placed the cell phone on top of the mattress and then got up, yawning and flexing his muscles. The single bed Brown gave him was a lot different than the king size bed he had at his suite in his mansion in LA, but it wasn't exactly bad. He still had a stiff neck though.

The singer was wearing just his boxer shorts so he went to his bag to grab his clothes for the day. He chose a pair of dark gray skinny jeans and a white T-shirt to go with the black Converses he was wearing the day before. He would stay without his leather jacket today. After a stop in the bathroom to brush his teeth and everything, he headed downstairs.

Shane found Brown sitting at the kitchen table, with a mug of black coffee and a catalog of music instruments. His uncle smiled when he took sight of him.

"Hey Shane. Early rising?" Brown asked, sounding pretty cheerful despite the early hour.

Shane grabbed a chair next to Brown and sat by the table as well. "Yeah, you can thank Nate and Jason for that." He said, rolling his eyes. Then he stared at his uncle's mug. "We have coffee?"

Brown smirked. "Wrong, pal. _I _have coffee because_ I_ made it. If _you_ want coffee, then move your butt from that chair and make some yourself."

Shane rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Well, if the coffee was made by you then I don't think I'd want to drink it anyway. I'm not eager to get poisoned."

"Ouch, Shane!" Brown placed one hand dramatically over his chest. "You're hurting your poor uncle's feelings you know?"

The singer just shook his head.

"Whatever." Then he rose from the chair. "I guess I'll just go out and buy some breakfast."

"Right." Brown nodded. "And may I ask you, where exactly do you plan on buying your super star breakfast?" He was eyeing Shane with a politely expression.

The vocalist found Brown's interest rather strange.

"In that dinner near the Church. Connie's Dinner." He answered.

Brown nodded once more.

"Oh, right. Connie's Dinner. But you know…" He made a thoughtful expression. "I don't think that Mitchie is there yet. If I remember correctly, she only does the afternoon shifts."

Shane noticed that Brown was inspecting his reaction at Mitchie's name with quite a bit of interest. He annoyingly rolled his eyes at his uncle behavior.

"Why does this have anything to do with Mitchie Torres?" He asked.

Brown shrugged. "Oh, nothing. It's just that Danny told me this morning that you and Mitchie seemed quite found of each other last night." Then he sipped a gulp of his coffee, faking a nonchalant attitude.

Well, Shane was a smart young man and he could see right through Brown's poor tentative of ambushing him. Honestly, what did is uncle took him for? A pathetic teenager with a crush? And where the hell did Brown get the idea that he might be crushing on Mitchie Torres to begin with? He only met the girl _twice_! He knew her for less than twenty-four hours. His uncle was being delusional.

"I'm just going to buy coffee, uncle Brown. Stop trying to play matchmaker." He warned.

Brown looked at him like he had absolute no idea of what his nephew was talking about and Shane just shook his head in response. If Brown wanted to play the dumb role then that was fine. Shane turned around to leave without another word, but when he was by the kitchen door he heard Brown calling his name.

"Think fast, Shane." The man tossed something on his Shane's direction and the singer caught it by reflex. When he examined the object he saw it was the key of a car. "It's the keys for my old pick-up truck." Brown explained to his nephew's puzzled expression. "You can use it while you're here, since I have another car. I figured it'd be best if you had a vehicle all for yourself, so you can escape faster if your fans recognize you." That last part was a joke, of course, but Brown couldn't resist it.

Shane gaped at his uncle. Brown was giving him _a car_? He had confiscated his iPod and laptop, but let him have a _freaking car_?

"Aren't you afraid that I might use it to get out of this stupid town?" He couldn't help but ask.

Brown just smirked.

"Well, good luck with that. The old thing can't make it pass eighty or ninety kilometers per hour. I'm pretty sure that you won't get too far at that speed before I catch you." Then he took another sip of coffee with a satisfied expression.

Shane scoffed; Brown had clearly thought it all through. Oh well, it was better than nothing, at least he didn't need to go around the town on foot.

"Ok, thanks. Can I have my confiscated stuff back now?" He asked, sarcastic.

Brown laughed at Shane's cocky defiance. "Yeah, don't count with that pal."

The singer rolled his eyes and placed the key securely in the back pocket of his jeans before exiting the kitchen. He went back to his room in order to grab the same disguise he wore the day before and his wallet. He stopped in front of the mirror, which was placed next the bedroom's door, to check his appearance and made a disgusted face at his hair. Well, at least in that way it would be harder for the fans to recognize him.

He left the room, headed downstairs and passed through Danny, who was still in his pajamas, eating a bowl of cereals while watching the morning cartoons. When Shane opened the front door he was greeted by the sight of a big, old, red Chevy pick-up truck. He sighed, thinking about how much he was already missing his black, shiny and brand new Porsche that was left in LA.

With a somewhat dejected pace he got into the Chevy and turned on the engine. The motor roared loudly and made him jump at his seat. God, that piece of junk sure made some noise. He pressed down the gas pedal and tried to ignore the noise as he drove down the now familiar path to Connie's Dinner.

It took him a little more than ten minutes to be parking the Chevy in front of the Dinner. Fortunately, for him, those old pick-ups were pretty common at southern small towns, so no one paid much attention to him.

Shane entered the Dinner and his shaded eyes immediately fell upon Mitchie's petite figure on the other side of the counter. She smiled that big ear-to-ear smile he had seen only once before when she took noticed of his presence. He swore then that he had never seen a girl with such a memorable smile like that. The singer went over to her without even taking notice that his feet were moving, it was almost as if she was luring him to go to her with that smile.

Shane wondered if she smiled that way to every potential client or if she was just really happy just to see him. He hoped it was the last one, because the truth was that he felt _slight happier_ now that he was seeing her.

"Hey." She greeted him with a sweet, soft tone.

"Hey." Shane surprised himself with the softness of his own voice but didn't give much thought to that. Truth to be told, he wasn't paying much attention to anything but the girl right in front of him. "You know, you forgot something at the house yesterday." He said with a playful hint.

"I did?" Mitchie seemed genuinely surprised with her wide eyes. "What?"

The singer just smirked. "Your autograph." He explained. "I figured you forgot to ask for it so I came here to fix that."

Mitchie gaped at him for a second and then started to laugh. Shane decided he liked the sound of her laugher. It was genuine, nothing like those girls from Hollywood who laughed at things that he said when he wasn't even trying to be funny.

"Gee. Thanks, I guess." She answered with the tiniest bit of sarcasm to let Shane know she meant that as a joke.

He chucked, getting the irony. "You're welcome. Got a pen?"

She nodded, playing along, and handed him the pen she used to write down the orders she got from clients. Shane grabbed a napkin that was lost on top of the counter to sign it.

Mitchie was so busy watching him that she didn't even noticed Caitlyn coming to stand beside her with two trays of food that Mitchie have been waiting to take to the tables before Shane appeared and pretty much banished everything else from her mind.

Caitlyn stared strangely at her friend's silly happy smile and then at the guy wearing a hat and sunglasses, who was writing something on a napkin. The teen felt pretty much invisible at the moment since no one took notice of her. She placed her hands on her hips and gazed at Mitchie with an annoyed look and then back at the guy. It was then that Caitlyn saw what he was writing.

It was some sort of dedicatory to which she didn't pay much attention since she was more concerned with the name he was signing in the end of it. It read with a messy, but charming, calligraphy a name that she had already seen printed in magazines for countless times.

_Shane Gray_.


	6. Sunday Activities

**Author's Note: I've been trying to upload this chapter for days but this damn site wouldn't let me :/ So now that this is over and done with, I hope you guys enjoy it and review!**

**PS.: The lyrics are from "She's My Kind Of Rain", by Tim McGraw.  
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**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own _Camp Rock_ (Disney does) and I'm not making any profit out of this, so don't sue.

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_**Soundtrack Of My Summer**_

**6.**

**SUNDAY ACTIVITIES**

"Oh. My. God." Caitlyn's choked and paused phrase caught Mitchie and Shane's attention.

The curly-haired girl was gaping and had wide eyes. Mitchie frowned, wondering what the hell was wrong with her friend, but Shane, who had had his share of experience with girls who looked at him with the exact same shocked expression that Caitlyn was wearing at the moment, knew exactly what was to come next. He just wished that his anonymity could've last longer though. He was having a perfect peaceful moment with Mitchie.

Caitlyn raised one hand and pointed her index finger at the singer. "You're… you're Shan-"

Fortunately Mitchie was fast to catch up on what was happening and placed a hand on Caitlyn's mouth, shutting up her friend before the Shane's identity was revealed to the crowded Dinner.

"Excuse us; we'll go, hum… We'll be right back!" And then Mitchie clumsy dragged a still shocked Caitlyn through the screen doors that lead to the Dinner's kitchen, leaving an astounded Shane behind.

Inside of the kitchen was Connie Torres, Mitchie's mother, and Raul Gomez, the other cooker. They were both perplexed at the sudden intrusion, but Connie was the first one to react.

"Mitchie! What's happening here?" She tried to get her daughter's attention by using that tone moms generally used when they were about to lecture their kids.

"Sorry mom, later!" Was Mitchie's hurried answer as she managed to open the door of the food store-room and push herself and Caitlyn inside.

"Mphhhh!" Was Caitlyn's muffed protest as Mitchie closed the door.

"Sorry, sorry!" Mitchie let go of her friend's face and the curly-haired teen took deep breaths of air.

"Holly shit, Mitchie! Were you trying to kill me?" Needless to say, Caitlyn was feeling pretty annoyed at her friend right now.

"Sorry." The brunette said again, biting her lip. "But I needed to shut you up before you caused a scene."

Caitlyn huffed. "Yeah, Mitchie, that much I noticed. And I also noticed that that guy is _Shane Gray_! Shane Gray is sitting out there, at our own Dinner, while we're here at this stupid storage-room!"

Mitchie rolled her eyes at Caitlyn's fan girl moment.

"Well, did you also notice that Shane Gray was trying to de discreet about his presence? The guy was wearing a disguise Caitlyn, and you almost blew his cover! Do you want to be the crazy and uncool girl who revealed his identity?" Mitchie knew that she had got Caitlyn when the other girl opened her mouth and closed it without making any smart remark.

"Ok, ok, I got it." Caitlyn sighed. "I don't know what came over me. I guess I just went into stupid fan girl mode because of the shock, urgh." And she seemed pretty disgusted with herself. Mitchie laughed at that.

"It's fine. I guess the guy has this kind of power over people." The brunette shrugged then. She couldn't pretend that she hadn't felt the slightest inclination to freak out the first time she saw Shane.

"Yeah, I suppose. But ok, can we go now? I promise I won't cause a scene." Caitlyn seemed pretty eager to get back to the pop star.

Mitchie placed her hands or her hips and smirked at her friend. "Why, Caitlyn, I never thought you'd be a secret admirer of Shane Gray. What about Nate Connor?"

Caitlyn huffed and rolled her eyes. "Urgh, Mitchie. Just shut up!"

Then she grabbed a laughing Mitchie by the shoulder and pushed them out of the food storage. Connie Torres was waiting for them outside, with narrowed eyes and a suspicious expression.

"Girls, is everything alright?" Asked Connie.

Mitchie and Caitlyn nodded immediately and the latter one took the lead to explain the situation.

"Yeah, everything's fine, Ms. Torres. I just freaked out a bit because I saw Barron outside and he's Lola's ex, you know? And I wanted to go there and give him a piece of my mind because of the jerk he was to Lola, but Mitchie dragged me here and calmed down. So, yeah, it's cool now." Caitlyn finished her lie with a bright smile that didn't convince Mitchie's mother entirely, but at least Connie didn't ask more questions.

"Ok, if that's settled then go back there, we have a full Dinner to serve." Connie shooed the girls out of the kitchen with a wave of her hands and went back to the pancakes she was mixing.

The girls sighed in relief and turned around to walk side by side.

"Well, that was close." Caitlyn whispered.

"Yeah. Great lie, by the way." Mitchie whispered back.

Caitlyn shrugged while opening the screen doors. "Oh, you know, practice makes perfection."

Mitchie just shook her head and they step out of the kitchen. Shane was still sitting on the same place. She couldn't tell for sure if he was anxious or not because of the shades he was wearing, but his lips were in a thin line so she supposed that he was, indeed, a little preoccupied. She smiled, trying to sooth the singer as she and Caitlyn made their way back to him.

"Hi again. It's all cool, Caitlyn won't say anything." Mitchie informed Shane as soon as they reached him.

"Yeah, sorry for before, I was just caught out of guard. I'm Caitlyn Geller by the way."

The singer nodded at them. "It's fine. I'm Shane, nice to meet you."

The singer and Caitlyn shook hands, which made Mitchie smile. Shane seemed a lot friendlier than he was yesterday. Then she noted that he wasn't eating any food.

"Shane, did anyone take your order yet?" Mitchie asked, a little concerned. She felt bad for leaving him without attendance.

"Oh, no. A guy just did it a while ago. I just asked for some coffee and muffins to go." Mitchie felt slight disappointed with his answer. If he ordered 'to go' then that meant Shane wasn't staying. Well, she couldn't blame him, not after the almost-accident with Caitlyn.

As a cue, the other waiter, Sander, showed up with Shane's order. "Girls, where the hell have you been? This place is full!" Sander complained as soon as he saw Caitlyn and Mitchie. It was, indeed, a very busy time at the Dinner, with so many people coming in for breakfast.

"Sander, chill. We'll be out there to help in a second." It was Caitlyn who answered, in the bossy tone she always used when she wanted to get rid of people. Sander glared at her, but she glared back and the guy just gave up and told her to hurry as he set out to attend another table.

Shane just stared at Mitchie while Caitlyn and Sander had their exchange. The brunette was gazing at her finger nails, peeling off her black nail polish as if it was a very interesting thing to do. He dared to think that she looked a little bit depressed over something. Well, he was feeling a little depressed himself. Or frustrated might be a better word to describe it. He had hoped to stay a little longer and chat with Mitchie, but obviously she couldn't do that right now, since she was working and everything.

"Hum, Mitchie?" He called to her and the girl jumped at the same place at the sound of his voice. She gazed at Shane with curious eyes and he suddenly felt a bit sheepishly to ask her what he intended to do, especially because he was very aware that Caitlyn was watching every move he made. But then he remembered himself that he was Shane Gray, he didn't get cold feet because of a girl – or two girls, in that case. So he just went ahead and asked her. "I was just wondering, what time does your shift ends?"

Mitchie frowned at that question, but before she could open her mouth and tell him that she would work all day, she was beaten by Caitlyn.

"Actually, it ends right now." Answered the curly-haired girl. She also smiled at Mitchie in way that said 'you contradict me and you're dead'.

"Good. So do you wanna hang out?" Shane asked Mitchie, in a cool, nonchalant pop star way. But that was only a façade, because inside he was trembling at the perspective of being refused.

He knew for a fact that he was _Shane Gray_ and he never got a 'no' for an answer, but if there was something that he learned from the night before was that Mitchie was different from the girls he was used to deal with. He couldn't predict what she was going to say.

"Oh, she would love to!" Again, it was Caitlyn who answered before Mitchie could. The brunette gave her friend an annoyed look, tired of having Caitlyn answering everything in her place.

Shane frowned while staring at those two, he must confess that he was finding the situation weird too. If that Caitlyn opened her mouth before Mitchie again, he would have to tell her to shut the hell up.

"Chill, Mitchie. You can thank me, or kill me, later. Now go with the pop star." Caitlyn whispered at her friend's ear, so Shane wouldn't listen. "I'll make up some excuse to your mom. But _go_, _now_." It was incredible how Caitlyn still managed to sound bossy even when she was speaking so low.

Mitchie still gave her a narrowed look, but inside she was feeling grateful and excited – although she would never admit it. The truth was, she didn't even know why she was feeling that way, but after the talk she had with Shane the night before, she found herself caring a little about him. He seemed so… Hurt, and sad, and frustrated. She just wanted to make sure that he was better now.

"Yeah, I want to." She told Shane, as a confirmation to his previous question. "I'll just take off this apron and get my purse."

"Cool." The vocalist gave her a half smile with that answer before she disappeared behind a curtain that concealed a little room.

He grabbed his coffee and muffins and made a move to reach for his wallet to pay for the food while Mitchie got ready, but Caitlyn stopped him.

"No, it's ok. That one's on the house." She said. "Ahn, consider it my apology for my earlier behavior."

Shane found it strange, but didn't discuss with her. "Okay, thanks."

Mitchie appeared again in that same moment, smiling that ear-to-ear smile at him and the singer pretty much forgot everything about Caitlyn. Shane took in the brunette's appearance for that day: flip-flops, an old faded blue jeans and a red tank top. Mitchie was clearly not a girl to care with fancy clothes.

He stood up from his stool. "Ready?"

"Yeah." She nodded before turning to Caitlyn. "Bye, Cait."

The curly-haired girl had a smug smile when she waved at her friend and Shane.

The couple silently headed out the Dinner, the brass bells from the door indicating their leaving. Shane took a sip of his black coffee when they reached the sidewalk and appreciated the effect the caffeine had over his body. He couldn't wake up properly if he didn't have his cup of coffee.

"Oh, cool, Brown's pick-up!" Mitchie exclaimed when she saw the old Chevy parked in front of the Dinner.

Shane suddenly felt a wave of affection towards the pick-up after Mitchie's enthusiastic reaction at the sight of it. "Yeah, Brown said I could use it while I'm here." He answered, twisting the keychain with his fingers in that cool way people do at the TV.

Mitchie nodded. "It was very thoughtful of him."

The pop star stayed silent at that one. He had a handful of words to describe his uncle, but 'thoughtful' wasn't one of them. He opened the driver's door to get in and it wasn't until he was bucking his seatbelt that he remembered that the guy was supposed to open the passenger door for the girl to get in. Well, it was too late for it now since Mitchie was already inside the pick-up.

The engine made that stupid, scandalous, noise again when Shane turned the key in the ignition and the singer silently cursed to himself. It would take him a while to get used to the noise.

"Can I turn on the radio?" Mitchie asked after a minute or so and he nodded.

The radio was one of those old tape players, so no CDs or mp3s for them, the local radio station would have to do. Mitchie fumbled with it for a while until she found a station that was playing some country song. Shane cringed, despite growing up in Tennessee he _really_ hated country music. He was opening his mouth to tell her to switch to another station, but then he caught sight of Mitchie's smile.

"It's Tim McGraw. Oh, I love this song!" She looked so happy that Shane realized he would be too much of a jerk if he told her to find another station. Ok, he'd just have to deal with the corny, mushy, country song. It would end fast anyway, it was already on the second chorus.

As they drove away from the town center, he heard Mitchie murmuring the lyrics for the song.

_Summer days, winter snows_

_She's all things to behold_

_She's my kind of rain_

_Like love in a drunken sky_

_She's confetti falling down all night_

_She's my kind of rain_

From the little he could hear, she seemed to have a good voice, it was sweet and on tune. He wished she sung a little louder though, but she seemed to have caught up on what she was doing and stopped her singing. Well that was a pity, he was actually enjoying it – her voice made the song more bearable.

"So, hum, where are going?" Mitchie asked when the Tim McGraw's song reached its end.

Shane frowned. That was a good question, because he had absolutely no idea where he was driving to. He didn't gave much thought as to _what _he wanted to do with Mitchie Torres, just that he wanted to do _something with_ Mitchie Torres. He couldn't take another day locked inside Brown's house with nothing to do and the brunette girl was the only person he knew in the town.

"Well, what's to do around here on a Sunday morning?" He tried to sound cool and collected. It would be pretty bad for his image if Mitchie realized that he didn't think that through.

The girl shrugged. "Not much, it's a small town and I'm usually more the stay-at-home type. But since it's sunny, we could go to the lake or something. Do you like canoeing?"

The last time Shane Gray went for a canoe ride he was eleven years-old and at a summer camp. He didn't remember much of it and he wasn't the one padding the canoe. But it shouldn't be so difficult, right? They just needed to go on a straight line, take a look at the lake and then go back to the shore. No mystery there.

"Canoeing sound good." He answered, earning himself a smile from Mitchie.

Shane made a mental note that whenever he said 'yes' to something she suggest and/or asked, she would smile. That was a pretty normal female response. Maybe it wouldn't be so difficult to understand her after all. If she smiled, he was fine, if she bitted her lip or narrowed her eyes, then it was time for him to watch out for himself.

With Mitchie giving directions they reached the lake after twenty minutes or so. There were some people walking around on the shore, a half dozen of families making picnics, but overall it wasn't much crowded. They easily rented a canoe, put on those life-saving jackets and pushed the canoe on the water. Actually, Shane pushed it while Mitchie was sitting inside the canoe – he remembered to be a gentleman that time. They had a hard time padding the canoe though – none of them seemed to know how to do it and they had no synchronism whatsoever.

"Hum, I don't think we're doing this right." It was Mitchie who pointed the obvious.

"Why? Don't you like going on circles?" Shane asked her with a chuckle.

Mitchie laughed along with him. Gosh, they were pretty pathetic at that whole canoeing thing, maybe that wasn't the most brilliant idea. She just gave up and dropped her paddle inside of the canoe, deciding that talking was better.

"So, do you ever plan on telling me what happened to your hair this morning?" She asked, staring at his curly hair with a grin. She had never seen Shane with his hair like that. Well, she assumed that he must've had curly hair, but seeing it live was a pretty different thing.

The singer rolled his eyes and kind of regretted taking off his hat and leaving it at the pick-up. "It was a prank from Nate and Jason, they took my hair straightner out of my luggage when I wasn't paying attention."

Mitchie couldn't help but laugh. That was a good prank.

"Oh, that was a smart move. Why don't you leave your hair like that more often? It's not bad." Actually she thought that it was a lot more than 'not bad'. Try maybe 'cute' and 'adorable', but she couldn't say those things to Shane, she barely knew him.

He huffed at the girl's suggestion. "I hate my hair like that, and I don't like when people see me this way. It's uncomfortable, like they're seeing me without my pants on or something." He confessed. Shane actually had never said that to anyone besides Nate and Jason, it seemed weird to say it to Mitchie, but it kind of felt right at the same time. It was confusing.

"Oh." Mitchie frowned. She didn't think that it would have a deeper meaning for him and was trying to understand what he said. "Like… People were seeing a hidden part of you? A part that they were not supposed to see?"

Shane stared at her with surprise. He didn't expect her to get it, but she did. When he talked about that with Nate and Jason, the first just said he was being childish and the second one asked him what his pants had to do with his hair. Mitchie was the first person that actually understood it.

"Yeah. It's exactly like that." And he smiled at her. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't smiled like that, just for the sake of smiling, in a long time. A lot of unexpected things were happening on that morning.

They stood in silence for a while, a comfortable silence, just appreciating the fresh air, the summer breeze playing with their hairs and making ripples on the water. The lake was surrounded by trees and green hills. It was a peaceful scenery, almost as if they actually were at some summer camp.

"I love this place." Mitchie suddenly confessed, with her brown eyes lost at the beauty sight that surrounded them. "I used to come here a lot with my parents when I was younger. We made picnics almost every weekend at spring and summer and we always had our world famous Torres burgers." She laughed and her whole face lit up. She seemed very found of those memories.

"What kind of people are your parents?" Shane asked her, with a polite, curious, tone.

"My parents are great people. Although, for you… I guess they'd just de pretty common." She shrugged, self-conscious. "My mom loves to cook and owns the dinner, as you already know. My dad, Steve, works at a hardware store. I don't have any siblings." She explained her family arrangements with a pretty modest tone. She was very aware that Shane Gray, who was so used at being constantly surrounded by celebrities and cool, interesting, people, would find her parents rather boring. And the fact was that they _were_ boring. _She_ was boring. Mitchie and her parents were just average small-town people, she thought being boring just came with the package for them. "And what about _your _parents?" She asked, feeling suddenly curious as to what kind of people could have raised a famous pop star.

"Oh." Shane's reaction was obvious surprise at her question. "They are just… Normal people, I guess. My mom was an English teacher, but she's not teaching anymore."

The girl noticed that he didn't talk anything about his father, but she chose not to question him about it and instead focused on some other thing. "What about your uncle? How does Brown come into the picture?" Mitchie knew that she was probably sounding like a reporter after some juicy family gossip with all those questions, but she couldn't help it. She really did want to know more about Shane, the guy behind the pop star.

Since their revealing talk where Shane told her that the media was spreading lies about him, she just wanted to discover which things about him were truth and which ones were lies. She supposed that when Shane felt tired of her questions he'd just tell her to shut up, but for now she would push her luck a little more.

"Brown is my mother's younger brother. He sort of always been around, I guess." He answered with a shrug. Strangely, Mitchie's questions didn't bother him. Maybe it was because of the girl's personality – she _really_ soothed him for a reason he couldn't explain. He kind of felt refreshed around her.

Mitchie smiled. She really liked Brown, he was so funny and knew so much about music. He had played with legends like Mick Jagger and Aerosmith and still was such a down-to-earth guy and a sweet, caring dad for Danny. Brown Cesario was one of her idols, she guessed it must've been really cool to grow up around him.

"Are you excited to teach at Brown's school? Your classes start tomorrow, right?" She asked, with a huge grin.

That question made Shane grimace. And to think he had almost managed to forget about that stupid whole teaching crap. Why did she have to bring it up?

"No. I don't _teach_. Nobody told me I'd have to teach when I came here, everyone just plotted about it behind my back." Shane made a point to show her how much that annoyed him.

Mitchie's face fell. "Are you telling me you're not teaching at Brown's school this summer?"

The singer crossed his arms, assuming a defensive posture. Something in Mitchie's tone made him alert. "Why? Are you in one of my classes?" He asked, trying to probe his waters before saying anything too compromising. He wasn't particularly keen to get on Mitchie's bad side again.

The girl laughed and shook her head.

"Uhn, I don't know if my scholarship covers for classes with a famous guest instructor." She answered.

That made Shane frown. Scholarship? From what he knew about scholarships, they were usually earned by merit or talent, and one thing Shane could say about his uncle was that Brown wasn't a guy who got easily impressed by those everyday aspiring musicians. Mitchie Torres must really be something else if Brown was even giving her some scholarship just to have the girl in his school.

"I can talk to Brown for you." He offered, without thinking. It was just when Mitchie stared at him with a surprised look that he got that maybe he was being weird. "I mean, only if you want me to." He added, trying to sound nonchalantly. Just great, he was being all protective and helpful towards that girl he barely knew. If Brown knew about that, he would have the time of his life by driving his nephew insane with jokes about Shane crushing on Mitchie.

He was Shane Gray, for Christ's sake! He didn't crush like a junior high boy – that would be the end of him.

"So, are you saying that you _will_ teach?" He could tell that Mitchie was hopeful, her eyes were even sparkling again. God, why it was such a big deal for her to see him teaching?

"Did Brown set you up for this?" He asked, with a raised eyebrow.

Mitchie gaped at him. Was he seriously asking her that? She narrowed her eyes and an alarm set off in Shane's head. That was a bad sign.

"Do I look like one of those scheming, manipulative girls?" She let Shane have her sarcasm. She was so not putting up with him going back to egoistical-pop-star mode.

"Uhn..." He run a hand through his hair, unsure of what to say. Did he really think that Mitchie was that kind of girl? It took only one glance at her for him to know that the answer was 'no'. If Mitchie Torres wanted to get on his good side to make him do something, then she would have just flattered him and acted as thought she thought he was the hottest thing on earth – which, obviously, she didn't and he still couldn't fathom why. "No. No, you don't. Sorry." He thought the apology at then end gave a nice touch.

Mitchie nodded and then sighed. She was under the impression that she might have scared him – as unlikely as it seemed for a worldly famous guy like Shane to get intimidated by a nobody like her.

"Look, Shane, why don't you just give a shot to this teaching thing?" She tried to sound more supporting and sympathetic. "Who knows, you might actually be great at it. And if you do suck, well, whatever." Mitchie shrugged a bit. "I doubt your students will care about that, they'll probably be too dazzled by your presence to notice anything else."

That actually made Shane smirk. "Are you calling me dazzling?"

The way Mitchie's face heated and became this adorable pink shade was one of the funniest things Shane had seen in a while. He couldn't help but laugh.

The girl shook her head, trying to get a hold of herself. That was so embarrassing. She didn't mean it like _that_!

"Jerk." She half-heartly cursed him.

Shane stopped laughing and raised a fist, trying to come off as serious. "Hey, being a jerk is part of the rock star image."

Mitchie crossed her arms and made a smug face. "Yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night."

They stared seriously at each other for a minute or so, as if they were making a staring contest of sorts, before both erupted in giggles.

In that moment, as they laughed and joked around in the canoe, Shane Gray was certain of one thing: with Mitchie Torres around, that whole summer exile could suck a little bit less.


End file.
